Finally I have gotten a real Rotator software plug again, this time directly from the creator himself, Robby Kilgore.

The rotator is a software in this case that for every note I play on my MIDI sax or whatever ads additional notes, from a pattern of intervals. Basically making my EWI into a mean chord monster!

I have long listened to the few demos of this that was previously available online and last spring me and my friend the software developer Bernhard Wagner managed to build a software that did this. However the program was specific to some particular software and hardware and when my old computer burned up I had no way of recreating it on my own. So I was really excited now when I got an email from Robby Kilgore and he had himself built a program that works in Logic. As a hardcore Cubase user since 15years I got straight away and bought Main Stage and started fiddling around.

What you see below is some examples from my first live try of the rotator, or first musical try at least. Some interesting ideas, sounds and places I think.

I’ve been looking through my youtube account and cleaned up a bit as well as started working on adding some new videos. I’ll be making a series of woodwind (especially sax) tutorials which will come up later. I have so far experimented with tecniques and ideas to make them and have a few recorder demos up so far. Have a look if you’re interested. These are mainly thought to be a compliment to my regular teaching, where the students can sit at home and watch my fingers if they need to.

I’ve been doing a lot of different solo saxophone projects over the years. This one was trying to implement the verses from Bible texts and since there was an opportunity for this project to actually get a gig I recorded this little video with help from my friends at Crag Explorers.

It has been my dream for a long time to build a Rotator as Robby Kilgore calls it. You can see it in action in some videos below.

I first got to know about this through my friend Bernhard Wagner and he also just built it so I could fool around with it!

To tell you shortly what it is, it is a software that adds a second note to whatever I am playing on the EWI (or any other MIDI device) with set intervals. It also rotates through this settings so I will have different intervals every time I change or replay a note! As a horn player, I can’t tell you how exciting it is to create harmonies! (I even started playing accordion some years ago to get harmonies)

Just starting to get on friendly terms with my EWI (it’s a 4000s for you gearheads) and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on practicing this instrument.

When I got it I had too little time to really dig into it, but past weeks I’ve been having and taking the time needed to get into this. Partly because I’ve been traveling without any other horn, and partly because I’ve broken my wrist and it is way easier to play ewi than an 50s Buescher tenor with a broken wrist. But most of all, I’ve always loved synthesizers (my dad’s being a great keyboard and synth player and lover) and I found the right motivation and inspiration from instagram and his birthday coming up.

1. Setting up the EWI

Once you’ve got your instrument you’ll probably want to play around with it and get some feeling for the instrument, I’ve got stuck in this stage for almost a year but maybe you’re quicker?

After that you should download the Vyzex editor (if you’re on Mac) and make sure you’re instrument runs on the latest software update. Mine was a demo instrument before I got it and doing this resolved a bunch of malfunctioning. There is a manual and although it is boring and time consuming it is a very good idea going through ALL of it and make sure your fingering ect. is what you want it to be. As a sax player I chose sax fingerings, but oboe, flute, and others are available too! But I frequently go through the manual again to fine tune the instrument to work as good as possible for me.

This is probably the most important step!

2. Choosing a sound

Although the EWI has a lot of built in sounds, I found most of them dull and boring so I’m sticking to one of the presets for practicing with earphones but connect it to a desktop synth with lots of patches in it to get a fatter sound. I find that using both of the sounds together is the way to go for me. But as my dad remarked it is important to find your synth sound and when listening to great synth players like Zawinul, Zawinul or maybe Zawinul you realize that he has a very distinctive synth sound that he uses all the time. Although there is variations, it has the same expression from the musicians standpoint. So I spent some time finding a sound I am happy with.

Also, as a saxophone player that suddenly is using AMPS at gigs to be heard at all, it is wise to start practicing and rehearsing with amps and find out that there is a jungle of amps and sounds out there. It is a strange notion not necessarily having your sound close to you as with a saxophone. And don’t do the mistake of placing your amp at the floor and turn up the volume until you hear good enough. Angle the amp towards your ears or put it on a chair so that you get most of the sound. Or else you’re gonna start a volume war with your band mates.

You’ll hopefully see which one to go for in the picture below.

3. Practicing the ewi

It is basically just like practicing any instrument, and in particular the saxophone. I’ve been doing my regular scale exercises, my flute fingering exercises and mostly, playing slow transcriptions that I did in the past just to refresh my technique for the EWI. One of my favorites is the one below, I’ve been searching for the origin with no success, but I belive it beeing a flute exercise.

The hardest part have been the thumb, it is still hard, my broken wrist makes it harder to move my thumb, but as all EWI players know going between octaves can be a real hassle. But from Björn Arkö which is a big inspiration for EWI I learned that you should initiate the switch before it actually happens by starting to move the thumb, kind of like playing piano. This seems to work fine although there is still lots of work to do. As always when dealing with music, thankfully 😉

Feel free to ask anything or leave a comment if you feel like I can help with your EWI.

The Nuvo jSax:

While I was on vacation in Amsterdam a week ago I didn’t bring any kind of instrument but just some few hours after landing my urge to play got too big so I started walking around stores to find a saxophone. What I came up with eventually after asking for ”any saxophone” and ”the cheapest horn you’ve got” was the new Nuvo jSax!

And at first sight it is a pretty cool little horn! You can see right away that it has got the features of a saxophone, and anyone that is familiar with music will spot it as a saxophone. The fingerings is, for me anyways, pretty straight forward. BUT I have to say, I am a bit disappointed about them. I love that there is a G# key, but I would also like to play F# in a ”normal” way and Bb in a normal way. The F# I think could be fixed pretty easily with a rod or something similar pressing down two keys but leaving the hole open.

The horn sounds good! To be at around €100 it is incredible. You can hear that it is a saxophone, sounding like a soprano is has a pretty sweet sound.

Intonation is another matter, some of the notes are really unclear what notes they really are supposed to be, but then, it works like a soprano so the amount of adjusting with pressure or embouchure is not that big. But as a small kid or beginner, it might sound off.

I threw away the standard mouthpiece first thing and replaced it with my standard soprano mouthpiece Vandoren V16 with Vandoren ZZ reeds. My friend and colleague didn’t and had a hard time playing it, and came back complaining to me that it’s a hard instrument. I later tried that ”mouthpiece” and plastic reed that followed in the box but I would recommend anyone a real mouthpiece if even Yamaha 4c with a 1 1/5 Rico reed.

Conclusion:

If you take it for what it is, a small cheap plastic saxophone with recorder fingerings and limited to 1 1/5 octaves and a stupid mouthpiece (but frankly all saxophones come with a stupid mouthpiece) it is a really cool little toy, or first saxophone for beginners, or for people like me that like most portable woodwind instruments.

So finally I have contemplated enough to be able to share this summers events.

With 25 young musicians divided into 2 orchestras with 3 weeks each, we did 40 gigs in total. With some interest in media as well as a huge number of applicants I think it is not too brave to say that it has been a success!

And the music! Each and every member of the two bands have performed flawlessly and way beyond my expectations and their previous level. I am so happy to have been leading these young musicians.